(Image courtesy of The New York Times)
If you’ve had the nagging feeling that Apple gets more than its fair share of media attention (and we’re not counting this site, naturally), a new report claims that it’s totally true. But how much does Cupertino dominate the news, and how did this happen?
The New York Times is reporting on what many of us probably view as stating the obvious: “Apple commands an inordinate amount of the media’s attention.” Of course, given that you’re visiting us here at MacLife.com, you’d probably question the usage of the word “inordinate” -- if it were up to us, we’d likely want more press coverage on Apple (if that’s possible).
As it turns out, the Pew Research Center spent a year combing through technology news coverage as part of their Project for Excellence in Journalism, and the results were surprising: Apple commands a healthy 15.1 percent of tech articles, while search behemoth Google comes in second with 11.4. The bad news is saved for Microsoft, who came in with an extremely modest three percent of tech media coverage.
As The Times notes, “It’s not as if Microsoft lacks for public relations people,” nor the money to carry out such PR events. According to Amy S. Mitchell, deputy director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism, it all comes down to anticipation for new Apple products and Cupertino’s “very public way of releasing products.”
Maybe it also helps that Apple is still the underdog, at least in the desktop computer space which continues to be dominated by Microsoft and Windows. However, on the mobile side, it’s clear that Apple is a worthy adversary with the iPhone, iPod and now iPad, and even giants like Microsoft are having a hard time playing catch up.
The full Pew study is expected to be released Monday, but the information already released tells most of the tale: The release of a new iPhone was the number two most talked-about tech story as culled from 52 newspapers, broadcasts and websites between June, 2009 and June, 2010. That amounts to 6.4 percent of all coverage, with the release of the iPad at number four with 4.6 percent.
Keep in mind that Microsoft released Windows 7 -- arguably its best operating system since Windows XP, according to virtually anyone who’s used it -- and yet that monster release only nabbed half a percent of all news coverage at the time.
So what was the single biggest tech story of the last year? That would be texting while driving, which commanded 8.5 percent of all tech articles during the year in question -- pretty remarkable considering how the media is often partial to bad news over good.
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